Rustbitten Templars
The Rustbitten Templars are an Imperial Fists successor Space Marine Chapter, though not in the usual sense. They focus on capturing, destroying or elminating high value targets and locations, defending VIPs and the likes. They also have a tendency of defending hospitals, spaceports and other installations that are helpful to the civilians or guardsmen on the planet they are defending. Origins Aelia Somwhere around the end of M34, an Imperial Fists force was ordered to dig in and defend a chatedral on the forge world Aelia. The chatedral was said to contain an important relic of the Black Templars, who have fought on the world before, and had left it there. The relic was a power claymore, originally wielded by the marine who defended the chatedral on his own against the onslaught of orks for three days, before his reinfoncements arrived. Now, the orks were on Aelia once again, led by warboss Gitstompa. The orks have arrived with a big fleet containing one of the biggest WAAAGH!-s the subsector has ever seen. The Imperial Navy have kept control of the planet's atmosphere, preventing orbital bombardment by the orks, but the greenskin forces still managed to land, swarming trough the manufactorums of the planet. This was when a company of Imperial Fists arrived to assist in the defence of the planet. Half of the Space Marines remained on their strike cruiser in orbit to provide aid to the imperial navy in boarding operations, while the second half landed to defend the chatedral and its surroundings. The Force Commander of this detachment was called Marius Termion, a terminator sergeant held in high regards among the chapter. Altough it was rumored he has been around since the Horus Heresy, noone could tell, because he never took off his helmet, which closely resembled that of a chaplain, since it was made out of the skull of a minor demon. This has caused some controversy, with several Imperial Fists chaplains claiming such headwear to be heretical, but Marius always had his rebuttal: the helmet was put together from the fragments of the craniums of warpspawn he had shattered along his career. Indeed, if one looked closely, the small cracks where the fragments were melded together could be seen. Aside from Marius, no real big names were in this strike force - the heroes of Aelia have yet had to earn their names. The defense of the cathedral was going well. The Space Marines with a bit of help from the local Imperial Guard regiment, the Aelian Guard were holding their positions without much effort, slaughterint wawes upon wawes of the green tide with minimal casualties. The general leading the Guard in the area even started to put together a plan for a counterattack, when the orbital battle turned in the orks favor. A Freeboota ally of Gitstompa has arrived with a fully armed space hulk, tearing the imperial fleet to pieces in the matter of minutes, while most of the other ork spaceships began the orbital bombardment of the planet, and especially the cathedral. The captain of the Imperial Fists strike cruiser, believing his brothers to be dead, retreated trough the Warp. Down on the surface, after theorbital bombardment has ended, the remaining templars emerged from the ruins, and began rounding up survirors. Their Tunderhawk gunship has been destroyed, and they were down to 23 men. This included two terminators led by Marius Termion, six devastators under the command of Sergeant Helgert Gudrion, four assault marines commanded by Vanguard Veteran Flavius Varro, and eight tactical marines without a de facto officer. They quickly decided that the squad's original plasma weapon expert, Brother Tiberius Valer would be put in charge - being previously mentored by Termion, he was a skilled tactician. With all that figured out, Marius lifted the power claymore from the foot of the altar, and swore an oath that he would deliver it back to the Black Templars. The remainder of the Space Marine defense force then gathered up the surviving guardsmen and found their apothecary, Brother Urius Tyrses alive. With 24 marines and about 230 guardsmen, they started looking for a place to hide until the Imperial Fists come back to their rescue. They have found an empty lasgun manufactorum that was suitable for their needs, and waited for around three months, before the suspicion that rescue would never come started spreading. After only one month, almost the entire ork fleet has left the planet's orbit. When it has become clear, that for some reason the Imperial Fists left their brothers on a planet full of orks, Marius Termion took all of his Space Marines and left the guardsmen in the manufactorum. He wanted answers, and he was going to get them. It didn't take long for the party to find a communications array, full of dataslates and recordings. One of the recording contained a message sent by the captain of their strike cruiser to the Imperial Fists fortress monastery on the phalanx, stating that the ground forces were dead and he would leave orbit of Aelia immediately. For the first time in millenia, the inner balance of Marius broke, as he cried out in fury, swearing an oath of honor that he would slay the coward, the traitor who had left him and his men to their deaths. All of his brothers repeated the oath after him, that if the previous one would not be there to pay their debt, they would carry out justice themselves. Then he and his men went back to the manufactorum, and held a meeting with the lieuthenant leading the guard forces. It turned out, that a manufactorum responsible for the construction of small frigates for the imperial navy was on the same continent as they were. The council has quickly made its decision: they would get to that manufactorum, hijack a ship and leave. The problem was, that there were a lot of orks in the way. The orks left on the planet were not very good looters. This was evident by the fact that they have not found the remaining small Imperial force yet. But as soon as they started heading for their new destination, they were constantly under attack. No longer would the power claymore of Marius or the power spear of Sergeant Varro rest. Despite their best efforts, the Space marines started falling, one after another. They lost Termion's two terminators, all but one devastator, and two tactical marines. They were down to twelve men, with about thirty guardsmen for support. The power armor of the astartes started to get rusty from the blood that has tainted it. By the time they reached the manufactorum, their armor was covered in orange rust. When they have arrived, they found the doors sealed. When they voxed the security room of the manufactorus, they were greeted by a group of techpriests and ship crew, that have locked themselves in the factory cowering in fear. When they heard that Space Marines demanded their assistance in getting off the planet, they opened up the door immediately, and started leading them to the completely assembled and operational frigate at the heart of the facility. Their fate, however, was not to get of the damned planet of Aelia that easily. While travelling through an uncovered, exposed part of the manufactorum, an Ork Big Mek appeared, with an army of Meganobz, Lootaz and normal boyz. He yelled out to his soldiers to "kill da spaice mareens first, ya dumb gitz!", and started chargeing towards the group. They immediately started running for the only corridor nearby, even the Space Marines - they may know no fear, but they are not suicidal either. But when they enterred the door, the orks were at their heels. That was when Marius called for his second-in command, Sergeant Varro. "Flavius, I shall run from these xenos no longer. We can not shake them off, but I can hold them off. I have lived a long life, longer than any Astartes should. I have not fallen in battle, like so many of my brothers have at Sebastus IV. It is time I make my sacrefice for my brothers. Carry my oaths, Flavius. Exact vengeance upon those who have betrayed us, and deliver their relic to our gene-brothers. Do this, to honor my memory." With these words, the veteran took off his helm, revealing his bearded face, full of scars of battle. He handed his skull-helmet and his power claymore to the sergeant. Without waiting for response, he stepped out of the corridor to face the ork horde, armed with his Storm Bolter and Eviscerator Chainsword. As the battle emerged behind him, Flavius caught up to his brothers and boarded the frigate. While the pilots prepared for Warp jump, ignoring the barrage of small caliber ork anti-ship weaponry, he murmured the words of his commander to himself, as the ship entered the warp and started headint towards the Phalanx. The Feast of Blades Their ship fell victim to Warp Phenomena. They felt that their travel time was completely normal, but when they emerged, they immediately got a call from the Phalanx demanding explanation of who they are and what they are doing here on a six thousand years old frigate. They emerged in M41, at the time of the Feast of Blades. Every single Imperial Fists successor gathered to the phalanx to engage in non-lethal duels. Varro smiled: this was the perfect time to enact his vengeance. When they stepped into the main hall, in their rusted armor, with no paint on it, their never-seen brothers stood up in suprise. The presence of the twelve Space Marines was so intimadating, that noone even considered trying to stop them. Flavius tightened his grip on his Force Spear, as he found the ship's captain in the crowd. The millenia-old marine froze for a moment, as he saw the old, familiar face revealed, when Varro took his helmet off. Then, the sergeant called him out. "You, Agriper Talius, are a coward, a traitor, and are not worthy to be an Astartes. You have left your brothers on a planet, stranded, surrounded by orks. Your own life was more precious for you than that of thirty-eight heroes, who died on Aelia. I, in the name of our fallen brothers challenge you to a duel to death. You have to defend you own honor. You have to redeem the Imperial Fists chapter. I, Flavius Varro, in the name of the Rustbitten Templars, challenge you, traitor!" With that, he put on the helmet of Marius Termion, handed the power claymore to the closest Black Templar he could find, telling him what it was and to give it to his Chapter Master. Then, he took up battle stance. His opponent was armed with nothing but a chaisword, but seemed to be a skilled swordsman. This battle was not going to be easy. The captain attacked first. Flavius managed to block or dodge all of his swings, but got so focused, the punch of his opponent got him by suprise. He struggled for balance for a split second, giving his opponent enough time to find a hole in his defense and deliver the killing blow. Or so the captain tought. But as soon as his chainsword tore itself inside the rusted armor of the Sergeant, Varro girnned. As the fangs of the weapon started ripping his abdomen apart, he swinged his spear and cut his opponent's arm off. The captain stared with suprise, as Flavius sliced open his chest with a single blow from top right to bottom left. As the traitor collapsed, he stopped hiss fall be shoving the spear trough his neck, and lifting the still twitching body of his former brother, directly before letting him collapse to the floor. "Here lies, in the dust the shame of the Imperial Fists. I have killed him for you. I have removed the shame of the betrayal of your brothers from your chapter. But the fact that you have not done it yourselves is enough to be ashamed of on its own. This is why I, Flavius Varro declare these twelve marines independent from this dishonored chapter. For we are now the Rustbitten Templars. The betrayed shall never betray, brothers." He said this last one to both his Rustbitten Templars and the audience. With that, he walked back to the the frigate. The Black Templar he sent off with the sword caught him in the hangar. "Chapter Master" he said, on his knees "my high marshal sends you this sword. In his words: let this be the first relic of a chapter of honour. May the Emperor guide you now, and forever." With that, he left, not even waiting for the thanks of Varro. Aftermath The Imperial Fists, not wanting such antagonizing elements in their ranks, supported Varro's claim to found a chapter when it got to the High Lords of Terra. The chapter has been founded, and began recruiting in Segmentum Solar under the caring hands of Urius Tyrses. And so, the Rustbitten Templars were born. Strength and Tactics The Chapter's strength has been wavering since their founding. They started recruiting in Segmentum Solar, around the beginning of M40, and began growing in numbers very swiftly. The guardsmen they brought with them also made attempts to found a new regiment, the Aelian Hellwalkers, and their efforts have been successfull. Apothecary Urius has begun producing gene-seed samples based on that of the surviving twelve marines, and in merely 250 years, they were up to chapter strength. There was a problem, however. Since they had only twelve Marines left and every single man they recruited became a Scout, when they reached full strength, their forces were basically made of three tactical squads and nine hundred initiates. At first, the Chapter's command was not very concerned about this. In combat situations, they would just deploy Scouts in the regular way but en masse. In smaller encounters like purging space stations this worked fine. It was the slaughter on Tempestus IV they realized that the tactic was not going to work. Tempestus IV was a full blown fourway free for all planetary battle. The mass deployment of Scouts led to losing about 70% of the chapter to either Ork assaults or Dark Eldar ambushes. When the Phoenixes came in to save them, they were down to two hundred Scouts and thirty-four marines. This called for an urgent fix of tactics. Chapter Master Varro and his second-in-command, First Company Captain Tiberius Varro came up with a solution. They would heavily focus on setting up Scouts like light Tactical Squads. They would no longer be deployed en masse, but rather in packs of ten, operating more or less independently from one another. These squads would be equipped with all manners of weaponry available: chainswords, shotguns, bolters and heavy stubbers were a standard sight within the ranks of the Initiates. Campaigns and Battles * The Slaughter on Termius IV: Just as the Chapter has filled up its ranks, they recieved a distress call from the Hive World of Terminus IV. Confident in the competence of their new tactics, Chapter Master Flavius Varro took his entire Chapter and the Aelian Hellwalkers regiment with him. When they arrived, it became evident that the planet was in trouble: the Orks and the Dark Eldar were battling in orbit, and their sensors picked up signs of a small Tau force stranded on the planet as well. The local guard and PDF were holding their ground, about half of the planet was still in Imperial hands. The Betrayed stayed true to their agenda, and instead of just leaving, they did not betray the helpless but started deploying on the surface and supporting the Imperial Navy in orbit with their three warships. Needless to say, this did not go very well. When Varro and Tiberius Valer were putting together the chapter's tactics, they did not realize that using Scouts like the Imperial Guard used their special purpose units meant high casualty rates. Casualty rates they really could not afford. Eventually, this lead to their shift of tactics after the Phoenixes Chapter came in and saved them. * '''The Second Termius War: '''After somewhat replenishing their numbers, the Templars came back together with the Phoenixes and liberated Termius IV and all surrounding worlds. The campaign was won easily with the new chapter tactics. This was the first time that Valrak, later Honor Guard Captain and Chapter Champion turned up - if only as a scout sergeant, for the time being. * '''The Aelian Crusade: '''The Rustbitten Templars and the Aelian Hellwalkers' leadership decided, that both the Chapter and the regiment needed homeworlds, from which they could draft recruits reliably. They needed aid however, which was given to them by the Mechanicus, in the form of the Adeptus Mechanicus, who gave them an entire Skitarii legion and a company of the Forge Wardens Chapter for support. The originally estimated simple planetary purge however quickly turned around when the Dark Ravagers and Sons of Tzeench chaos warbands arrived to the system hunting an ancient relic. The war was eventually one, but with great losses, and with First Company Captain Tiberius Valer having to be turned into a Dreadnought.